Mobile phones, tablet computers, networked cameras, and other portable devices incorporating camera modules and network connections to the Internet have opened up opportunities for new and exciting gaming, entertainment, and structured learning experiences. This technology is currently used to create geocache treasure hunt games and photo-based scavenger hunt games. It is also used to enable museum tours as well as tours of historic areas and other tourist attractions.
However, these experiences are relatively static. Typically, the game or experience is designed once and played many times in a similar manner by all the users. In some cases, these games or experiences are provided, or modified, based on the location of the user. For instance, the Geocache Navigator, from Trimble Navigation Limited, Sunnyvale, Calif. is an application (APP) for a Smartphone which uses the phone's GPS and interne connections to access live information directly from geocaching.com. This enables a user to locate geocache challenges which are closest to their current location.
It is known to provide preference-aware location-based services, as described in the paper titled “Toward context and preference-aware location-based services” authored by Mokbel et al. Such systems tailor their services based on the preference and context of each customer. For example, in a restaurant finder application, the system can use the dietary restrictions, price range, other user ratings, current traffic, and current waiting time to recommend nearby restaurants to the customer, rather than recommending all of the closest restaurants.
Photography is often used to record and share experiences, such as vacation trips, family outings, or seasonal events. Still and video images of such experiences can be captured using image capture devices such as camera phones, digital cameras, and camcorders. The digital images captured by these image capture devices can be shared by e-mail and uploaded to web sites such as Facebook and Flickr, where they can be viewed by friends. The uploaded images can be printed using photo service providers, such as the Kodak Gallery at www.kodakgallery.com. Users can order photo products, such as photo books and collages, which utilize uploaded digital images.
It is known to produce enhanced photo products by combining images captured with an image capture device and professionally produced digital content, as described in commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/626,471 (published as 20080174676), “Producing enhanced photographic products from images captured at known events” to Squilla, et al, incorporated herein by reference. The system includes a database for storing custom content for a plurality of events. The system also includes a digital image capture device that stores a digital image and information defining the date/time and geographic location of the digital image. A service provider automatically determines if the timestamp and the geographic information corresponds to events stored in the custom content database. A processor produces an enhanced photographic product including the captured digital image and custom content corresponding to the timestamp and location of the captured digital image.
It is known to use image recognition techniques to produce a photocollage from a plurality of images, as described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,181 “Photocollage generation and modification using image recognition” to Shaffer et al, incorporated herein by reference. The system sorts digital records associated with a plurality of images, by culling or grouping to categorize the records according to an event, person, or chronology, in order to automatically compose a photocollage.
What is needed is an image capture device, such as a smart phone, which provides guidance for capturing images at different locations. The image capture device should preferably provide a dynamic, compelling, photo-based experience responsive to the user, situation, and conditions.